opportunity |H.S|

• twenty five •

when I wake up, I'm afraid

somebody else might take my place
______

Harry Styles

Isabelle Campbell, twenty two.

Tonight was an easy job, annoying, but easy nonetheless.

There was no punishment to go with this, it was only a level one so thankfully I didn't have to get my hands dirty.

I don't enjoy doing what I have to do especially when there are so many other ways I'd rather be spending my time and other people I'd rather be spending it with.

Nor do I like getting all of this blood on my hands, both figuratively and literally.

Although I don't want to do any of this, I still do.

Like clockwork, I run through the necessary motions every time a name is given to me. Time and time again I become a person I no longer recognize, the man my father raised me to be.

Since the moment I was brought into this world every second of my life has been spent grooming me to become this man by the standards of my father.

Though I never viewed things the same as him, his definition of a man never quite aligning with my own. For a long time I rejected his beliefs as the innocent and naive young boy I was.

I didn't want this, I didn't want to hurt anyone.

I still don't.

But I never truly had a choice, not when it came to my family. Not when it came to Jane.

The moment she was born I saw something shift in our family.

Mum was as ecstatic as any mother should be welcoming a baby girl into this world, but my father, he viewed this as something different.

He saw her as a second chance. If it wasn't me, it would be her eventually in my position.

I couldn't let her go through anything remotely similar to me or what half the women in this society go through. So I made it my mission to shield her from that, even if it meant sacrificing the life I want for myself.

Over time this has just become something I grew accustomed to, desensitized. All of the pain and suffering, the bloodshed, peoples lives. None of it fazed me, not when I allowed myself to become this man.

Tonight all I had to do was gauge how much information Isabelle knew about something my father is working on. It's always the pretty young ones that find themselves near business they shouldn't be anywhere close to.

I knew upon looking at her that she was harmless. Maybe she heard a thing or two but she wouldn't have a clue what to do with any of it.

Girls like her are only looking for a good time away from the snobby lifestyle they live, anything they overhear going straight over their pretty little heads as long as they get the good time they are looking for. But now more than ever it has become important to preserve our family name, risking her running her mouth just wasn't an option.

It could have been anyone on my team taking care of this tonight, even Miles is here, but he had insisted I be the one to do it.  Just in case.

I hated having to leave Thea to do this of all things. We're finally in a good place, I'm not exactly sure what that place is but all I know is that wherever it is, it feels good. It feels right.

I had Miles bring out our drinks earlier, hers having something stronger slipped inside to make this easier and quicker.

I just wanted to get this over with.